Sunday, November 11, 2012

Maybe the folks at Baseball America knew what they were talking about after all putting Slade Heathcott 2nd intheir top 10 organizational prospect rankings for the Yankees this week. Despite his inability to be smart, eloquent, or a good speller when discussing the election on his Twitter account, Heathcott has been a standout since day 1 in the Arizona Fall League this year. And David Adams, who continues to impress and create buzz for himself heading into ST 2013, has been no slouch either:

And if you're a visual learner, he's a piece from YES.com on the Yankees' AZFL participants. Mmmmmmm, prospects...

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P.S.- Heathcott has no neck, Austin Romine looks like he's 35 years old, Mark Montgomery looks and sounds like a meathead who doesn't give a shit about anything other than striking guys out, and Dellin Betances fucking blows.

With everyone having now made their decisions on the qualifying offers that were made (all were declined) and the GM meetings this week getting things moving towards the meat of the 2012 offseason schedule, the Yankees know where they stand and know where they need to focus their efforts to build their team for 2013. As presently constructed, the Yankee roster is short 2 starting pitchers, 1 right fielder, 1 hitter capable of handling a significant chunk of the time at DH, at least 1 relief pitcher to build depth in front of a returning Mariano Rivera, and a couple of pieces to fill out the bench.

The precedent has already been set from the front office for how they plan to fill these needs, and it's going to be on the cheap, cheaper than it was last season when the Yankees jumped in late to swipe a few veterans on 1-year deals. That strategy will eliminate some of the players mentioned below, but that still isn't stopping me from putting together my list of the top free agents the Yankees should be going after this offseason. We'll tackle the first half of that list, the position players, after the jump.